Preservation in the geek mainstream

Digital preservation issues are gaining notice in the geek mainstream, the large body of people who are computer-savvy but don’t live in the library-archive niche. Today we have an article in The Register, “British library tracks rise and fall of file formats.” It cites the British Library’s Andy Jackson, supporting the view that file formats remain usable for many years, even if they’re no longer the latest thing.

The Register article is short but nicely done. It naturally skips over issues which Andy’s original article deals with, like just how you reliably determine the formats of files. What’s significant is that it shows that concern about the long-term usability of files isn’t just a concern of a few specialists.